Good news for Austrian mountain biking.

Austria is developing a national mountain biking strategy, to attract mountain biking tourism as they are losing out to other Alpine countries.

Their current access laws are 50 years old and were written before mountain biking was a thing. Sound familiar?

Sounds sensible.

I wouldn’t hold my breath. The get drunk while blasting animals to bits brigade will need quite a bit of persuasion.

In Austria?

yes, they cordon off huge swathes of mountainside, and head off into the hills armed with sniper’s rifles and litre bottles of Obst. Generally they’re hunting wild boar, but after half the bottle’s gone anything that moves is worth a shot.

I wouldn’t hold my breath. The get drunk while blasting animals to bits brigade will need quite a bit of persuasion.

Da hoam wir immer so gmoacht!

I used to guide transalp groups from Bavaria to the Italian lakes. We crossed Austria in a day and avoided any trails for fear of conflict.

Much of the alpine economy in Austria relies heavily on skiing. Yet the slopes are receding and the season is getting shorter and shorter.

There are plenty of hikers in summer, but I doubt they spend as much in the alpine huts as the bikers do.

If you compare Tirol to its southern neighbour, South Tirol, the change in attitude is massive.

I wouldn’t hold my breath on things changing. If it is down to individual commune or land owners to decide on bike access then things are unlikely to change very much.

There are plenty of hikers in summer, but I doubt they spend as much in the alpine huts as the bikers do.

Really??? It might be true in Saalbach or other uplift resort places.

But that’s not my experience of many holidays in Austria. They’re are literally hundreds of huts there mostly run by families or ÖAV (Austrian Alpenverein) in the high mountains. Most are set up to service the hiking trails of which there are too many to count and many are on popular/famous hut to hut treks. They are always busy and in the last 20years you see more MTBers each year but probably less than 10% of the customers in there on any given day.

I’ve been to too many huts to count stayed in about 15 huts and never seen a biker stay overnight.

South Tirol decided to embrace MTBs around 2010/12.

It was rare to see a biker at a hut in the 2000s even the really popular ones that aren’t difficult to reach like Drei Zinnen/Locatelli

They are always busy and in the last 20years you see more MTBers each year but probably less than 10% of the customers in there on any given day.

Obviously, because they’re not allowed on the trails.

My feeling is that many, not all, hikers will take a packed lunch and find a bench whereas bikers tend to stop and eat at huts.

If you can afford a 4k bike then you’re likely to have a bit of disposable money to spend on food and drinks.

Süd Tirol certainly started to advertise itself as a mtb destination around that time. It has transformed some places like Vinschgau/Val Venosta which is now heavily reliant on bike tourism.

I’m fairly certain that the (possibly biased) evidence shows that mountain bikers spend about 30% more per day than hikers.

When we bought our place in 2012, it was rare to see another MTB in our village. Loads at Leogang/Saalbach up the road.

They built a flow trail in the village around 10 years ago and numbers started increasing, now there are loads every summer. Still only 6km of singletrack/flow trail in a 150km piste area though. Apparently they have something in planning maybe next year onwards, fingers crossed.

I know in Leogang there are around 30 land owners they have to deal with to keep the trails going, and as above, the main objections seem to be about hunting and liability insurance.

I know bookings on our apartment were down this Winter so I expect that was replicated throughout the hotels too. Hopefully the penny is starting to drop with regards to MTB development.

That’s the thing, allowing riding of natural singletrack doesn’t need much, if any, upfront cost if liability is taken care of.

Similarly hunting and mountain biking already exist in relative harmony in France.

Perhaps genepi or chartreuse makes the hunters more sleepy & chilled out?

Mayrhofen was dead this year at Easter. I’ve never seen such empty pistes, hotels or restaurants.

Even Hans’ metzgerei??

So whilst Austria is warming to the idea of bikes being ridden in their forests, the Germans are thinking of regressing and banning any bike activities except on specifically designated trails.

They even want to ban walkers from straying from the paths, which would mean no more mushroom gathering….

https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/gesellschaft/wald-gesetz-mountainbike-100.html

https://www.bike-magazin.de/magazin/hintergruende/bundeswaldgesetz-2024-nabu-will-mountainbiker-von-trails-verbannen/

Na, toll

@alpin, are you in/supporting the DIMB? They are working hard to counter it.

That would kill off orienteering there.

I used to be a member of DIMB some ten years or so ago. Was automatically a member through the company I was guiding for.

Seeing as I’m currently bumming around Europe (now in Italy) with no intention of returning long term to Germany I probably won’t sign up again.

That would kill off orienteering there.

Kills off lots of activities. Ski-touring, scrambling, climbing, kids playing in the woods.

It’s stupid.

If you compare Tirol to its southern neighbour, South Tirol, the change in attitude is massive.

I wouldn’t hold my breath on things changing. If it is down to individual commune or land owners to decide on bike access then things are unlikely to change very much.

I’ve noticed a huge change in Tyrol in the last 10 years. From winter resorts that barely have anything open once ski season ends – to thriving summer destinations. Ebiking has the mountain huts rubbing their hands – with more and more accessible bike routes and bike parks popping up.

“Hikers and skiers should not leave the paths, as this represents an additional stress burden for forest animals .”

This statement alone is crazy imho. The wood price here in Schwarzwald is so high the forests are being cleared at a hell of a rate, all legal mind. The level of destruction from large scale forest machinery needs to be seen to be believed and is way beyond biking through the forest on a trail….  I really cant understand their main argument re protecting wildlife and habitat with this amount of legal vandalism.

FFS Zillertal. Get a sodding handle on your mountains. Three years running they’ve happily advertised the “singletrails” on their website and in the literature, yet when you come to use them, they’re mysteriously out of action.

At least someone is thinking of the walkerists!

However….
Why TF do you go to Zillertal for biking? It’s crap…. Even the Penken Joch Trail that was exclusively for bikes was crap…. Not much more than a long fireroad with a few (badly built) “jumps” and kickers off to the side.
Used to ride through Zillertal when guiding Transalp tours, either up to Schlegeis lake or Hintertux (crap as the descent the other side was still in Austria and you had another 4-500m climb up to Brenner from which there’s no decent singletrail)…. A nice long tail the other side of Pfitscherjoch towards Sterzing.

Why TF do you go to Austria for mtb riding?
Great for road and gravel, mind.

We come here for walking and family activities. I usually get to escape for a 6am jolly on my own somewhere (the run up to the top of the Stilluptal and Ginsling valleys are good) this year however, I came prepared for the unwelcome and left the bikes at home.

I tried to ride down from the Penken once using a Komoot route. Yeah, some comedian had uploaded that as it ended in a via ferata!

tried to ride down from the Penken once using a Komoot route. Yeah, some comedian had uploaded that as it ended in a via ferata!

?

When I rode it around 12 years ago it was sign posted and ended somewhere half way up a mountain and you had to endure lots of pad destroying fireroad needles to say, I’ve only ever ridden it once.

Some development here in Maria Alm.

They’ve marked up a few fire roads as shared trails.

They’ve bulldozed a beautiful old rooty singletrack and made it into a 3m wide motorway.

I’m going to ask the Gemeinde if I need to buy a vignette for it.

It’s like someone from Delamere FC is making the decisions